The 15 most prestigious medical schools in Europe

Finding a career in medicine is serious business. It takes at least six years to study to become a doctor, and aspiring students need to be at the very top of their class to get into the best universities.

Education company QS ranks the world's best universities every year, based on how they are viewed by employers and academics, as well as how many research citations university studies receive in academic papers, before giving them a score out of 100.

This year's world ranking includes several European universities that are home to some of the world's finest medical schools, from the University of Manchester in the UK to Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

Here are the best medical schools on the continent, along with their overall world ranking in brackets:

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15. (51) Aarhus University: 79.70 — Aarhus in Denmark didn't make it into the top 50 globally last year, and narrowly missed again this year, but it still performed well when it came to academic citations, and ranks as one of the top medical schools in Europe.

14. (49) University of Manchester: 80.1 — Manchester, in the north of England, has soared through the QS rankings, and moved into the top 50 medical schools in the world this year. It has a strong academic reputation, and performed extremely well in the citations category.

13. (44) University of Zurich: 80.6 — The best medical school in Switzerland, the University of Zurich has jumped up from its position as 45th in the QS world rankings in 2015 to 44th this year. It scored highly for citations in academic papers.

12. (40) Heidelberg University: 81.7 — Heidelberg, on the Neckar River in southwest Germany, has fallen one place from 39th in last year's world rankings, but it still has an extremely strong academic reputation.

=10. (34) University of Amsterdam: 82.2 —Amsterdam has jumped from 46th globally in 2015 to 34th this year, overtaking Heidelberg and tying with the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

=10. (34) Erasmus University Rotterdam: 82.2 — It may have fallen one place from 33rd in 2015, but EUR has one of the most prestigious medical schools in the Netherlands, and is ranked the 34th best in the world.

8. (29) London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: 83.1 — London's School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine consistently performs well in the QS rankings. It has moved up from the 31st best in the world in 2015 to 29th this year, and scored highly on academic citations.

7. (26) University of Edinburgh: 84.5 — The medical school at the University of Edinburgh has a strong reputation with employers, and has jumped from its position as the 31st best in the world in 2015 to 26th place.

5. (11) Imperial College London: 89.2 — Imperial College has held steady at 11th place in the rankings since last year. It has a strong academic reputation, and also excels in engineering.

4. (10) Karolinska Institute: 89.9 — The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, may have moved down in QS's world rankings from 9th place in 2015, but it maintains a strong reputation with employers.

3. (9) University College London: 90.1 — University College London is one of the world’s top multidisciplinary universities. It has moved up from 10th place in the 2015 global rankings, and is hugely popular with international students.

2. (3) University of Cambridge: 95.5 — Cambridge is a world-leading university in a variety of subjects. Its medical school performed extremely well in the academic reputation category.

1. (2) University of Oxford: 85.8 — The University of Oxford is the second best university in the world for medicine, after Harvard University. It performed particularly well in the research category and academic citations.